There are numerous uses for deuterated silicon nitride-containing materials in semiconductor processing. For instance, deuterated silicon nitride-containing materials can be utilized as reservoirs of deuterium during hardening of a silicon/silicon dioxide interface, as described in, for example, Clark, W. F. et al., “Improved Hot-Electron Reliability In High-Performance, Multilevel-Metal CMOS Using Deuterated Barrier-Nitride Processing”, IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 501-503, October 1999.
Various methods have been proposed for forming deuterated silicon nitride-containing materials. The methods utilize a deuterated silicon-containing precursor (such as, for example, SiD4) in combination with a nitrogen-containing precursor which may or may not be deuterated (with an exemplary non-deuterated nitrogen-containing precursor being NH3, and an exemplary deuterated nitrogen-containing precursor being ND3).
The methods described above for forming deuterated silicon nitride-containing materials tend to be relatively expensive, and accordingly it is desired to develop more economical methods for forming deuterated silicon nitride-containing materials.